Salesforce acquisition of Demandware took many analysts by surprise but it was a step in the forward direction for Salesforce which from being a data repository of a corporation’s customer interaction came one step closer to the customer journey. Modern shopper consistently seeks a seamless and unified shopping experience, irrespective of the channel they make their purchase through. Retailers and brands must then offer them a single platform that leverages a shared view across all their channels – offline, digital, kiosk, fulfilment, customer service et al. This is a necessity to stay competitive and deliver relevant experiences today, more than ever.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud offers such a unified set of capabilities to power commerce experiences across all channels. Demandware now Salesforce Commerce Cloud platform turns digital commerce, store operations, order management, and point-of-sale into a shared commerce experience. All capabilities share a single view of customers, orders, and prices, powered by a single personalization and price engine. Earlier known as Demandware, Commerce Cloud is scalable, reliable, and secure. Thus, it helps retailers deliver a personalized and customized platform to their customers.
What is Salesforce Commerce Cloud?
Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a cloud-based SaaS e-commerce solution, it delivers a highly optimized shopping experience. Unlike traditional platforms like SAP Hybris and Oracle ATG Commerce by offering Salesforce Commerce Cloud as a SaaS solution, corporations eliminate the need for businesses to manage complicated technology infrastructure and gain a roadmap to stay ahead of the curve.
The idea behind the platform is that retailers should be able to, both technology-wise and policy-wise, service customers on mobile devices, websites, social media, in stores or any other channel. Customers should be able to (and also expect to) buy products online and return at a physical store, file service issues on social media platforms, and have all purchase and related information visible to a service representative.
What does Salesforce Commerce Cloud do?
Salesforce Commerce Cloud offers brands and retailers a one-stop solution with best-in-class B2C functionality. The aim is to enable retailers to provide seamless customer service and experience, whether customers are online or in stores. Thus, it helps achieve a higher rate of customer satisfaction through personalized interactions with the customer. It helps retail brands in building and maintaining long-term customer relationships, assisting them in improving service and engagement by focussing on individual needs.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud Architecture
Commerce Cloud’s architecture makes it a useful tool for brands to engage customers throughout the lifecycle.
Agile and scalable: The Commerce Cloud is built on a scalable and secure multi-tenant architecture. With 99.99% global site availability, downtime is never a cause for worry, even during high-traffic periods
Innovative: Because its core commerce services are updated several times a year, brands get a steady stream of new features without having their daily operations affected. Thus, customers always have the most current version and access to the latest innovations
Limitless customization: The open architecture allows for building unique customizations and integrations. A full set of APIs enables external web applications to interface with the cloud’s core commerce functionality. Commerce Cloud’s development environment also allows for the development of customized brand experiences across channels and customer interaction points
Unified experiences: The Commerce Cloud’s shared data model can be leveraged across all direct interaction channels. All channels can subsequently leverage core capabilities and services, maximizing agility and innovation across the entire customer lifecycle
Benefits of the Salesforce Commerce Cloud
Business agility: With the Commerce Cloud, businesses get speed, agility, and scalability to execute growth strategies without the technical issues that often come with traditional on-site solutions. Because the platform is so flexible and easily customizable, it paves the way for scalability, minus the costs of infrastructure management. Thus, retailers stay in control, impacting customer engagement across devices and channels
Continuous innovation: With the Commerce Cloud, barriers to innovation that are common with legacy commerce platforms are eliminated. Thus, brands can keep pace with the dynamic retail marketplace and evolving customer expectations. Moreover, the open architecture allows for the building of unique capabilities without compromising the upgrade path. With pre-built integrations, it is easy to connect to third-party technologies
Unified commerce experience: Because all channels share data, customers benefit from a more consistent and rewarding shopping experience. Commerce Cloud bridges digital and in-store technologies to make way for unified customer experience across the shopping journey, enabling brands to create a true 360-degree view of their customers
Salesforce Commerce Cloud is proving to be an e-commerce solution that offers superior value to retailers with its powerful functionality, scalable technology, and reliable functionality. With seamless upgrades and predictive capabilities, it is truly the next-gen disruptor retailers have been waiting for.
